Ice and Fire
by grungekitty
Summary: I didn't have anything made for Evil Sprx day, so instead, I decided to post part one of this story. Part two is about halfway finished...there might be a part three, depends on what I do with the rest of this. I'll put a proper summary here later...


**The temperature dropped and I got an idea.**

**I shall now attempt to write a story based on that idea.**

**-grungekitty**

* * *

Wasn't it just their luck that Morlath would hold a grudge and try and take over Shuggazoom? He still couldn't leave his little ice cave, but that didn't stop him from sending frost demons. He had sent twelve this week. The frost giant didn't know when to quit!

It was more of a nuisance than a threat at this point. Snow covered the planet as the team fought what they hoped would finally be the last attack for a while.

Nova, hating this circumstance with an unrivaled passion, couldn't be stopped, pounding into every snow creature she got her robotic monkey hands on. Nova was fighting the faster, but weaker ones, while a slow, strong one charged up an attack far behind her.

To her, the bigger frozen warrior was too far back to take up space in her head. She just forgot it was back there, focusing on her short range battle. A mistake she often made. With weapons built for close combat, she rarely gave thought to her opponents having longer ranged weapons.

Sprx got off easy here. For his long distance weapons to work best, he had to put some space between him and his enemy. He rarely got hit by weapons he forgot to consider. Sprx particularly had no capabilities for close quarter combat (unless you count hitting things with his magnets, but that wasn't very effective) so he was always the most mobile on the battle field, not able to risk being too close to any opponents.

This lead to Sprx being where he needed to be to look up at just the right time to notice Nova's predicament.

He barely thought about it past "Nova, cold, bad" He jumped and took the ice beam for her.

An aggressive shiver ripped through his body, shaking his every fiber to the point where he thought he may have taken an electric attack for Nova instead. As quickly as it came, however, the shiver disbursed, and Sprx stood back up.

Nova gasped and gave an astonished "thank-you" at his actions, then continued her fight, watching her back this time.

Both of them thought nothing more of the incident.

* * *

After hours in the snow, the team _finally_ re-imprisoned Morlath. It was rewarding for the team to actually get such a concrete success. He'd stop being a problem now. No minions, no resurrections, no turning any of them evil, no fuss, just done. It was refreshing for them.

Cold and tired, the team headed back to the robot to warm themselves. Sprx was persuaded into making soup for the hungry and fatigued team. They were very grateful when he agreed.

Sprx briefly remembered the ice blast on the trek back. Should he tell Gibson? It was probably nothing. He wasn't in pain, right? He was still standing, right? Yeah….nothing.

And with that Sprx let the incident slip his mind once more.

* * *

Sprx rubbed his hands together over his boiling pot. Why was he still so cold? He'd been inside for a good hour at least. He let a deep hot breath escape over his numb fingers and continued cooking.

"Soup's on!" Sprx yelled after a few minutes despite his discomfort.

"Sweet!" Chiro chirped grabbing a bowl before anyone noticed he entered the kitchen.

Sprx slurped down his soup at a pace that could rival Otto's, then left for his room. His freezing body yearned for his warm, blanket covered bed.

Sprx flopped down and pulled every blanket he could find close to his body. The warmth was nice. He could just close his eyes and relax for a bit….

His teeth chattering woke him up. How long had he been out? Was the heat malfunctioning? Sprx decided to brave the cold outside of his covers to find his answers.

He braced himself for the blast of cool air as he peeled away his blankets, but it never came. The temperature seemed to be the same as it was in his cocoon. Not to say it was warm. Oh no, Sprx was freezing his metal-tipped tail off.

Puffs of white breath slipped through his mouth and nose as he breathed. Yeah, the heat was probably out…._Great!_ Just what today needed!

Sprx walked out into the command center and saw, to his surprise, no one shivering.

"Nova should be up the wall by now…" Sprx thought.

"C-can we turn on the heat?" Sprx said louder than he meant to.

"It's 72 degrees in here, Sprx!" Gibson exclaimed as he slammed his book close in frustration.

Obviously Sprx was not the first interruption to his activity.

"Are you k-kidding? I can s-see my breath!" Sprx yelled in defense, stuttering a bit as his jaw shook uncontrollably.

Gibson glared. His look softened to surprise when he witnesses confirmation of Sprx's claims.

"What on Shuggazoom…?" Gibson aimlessly questioned, inspection his brother more thoroughly.

"Is everything alright?" Antauri asked.

"N-no! I'm f-freezing my t-tail off!" Sprx snapped, the stuttering getting worse.

"You're ice cold!" Gibson gasped in worry. "I'm going to take you to medbay for a scan. Antauri can you get the others? This could be serious. Nova's in her room and Chiro and Otto went out to take advantage of the snow."

Gibson grabbed Sprx's arm, but recoiled at the touch. He was so cold. It was like leading a corpse!

Gibson shoved the dark thought from his head. Sprx was most certainly _not_ dead!

….yet.

* * *

"Sprx, hold still! I need to get a good scan of you!" Gibson snapped.

"I'm j-just sh-sh-shivering! I c-can't h-h-help it!" Sprx retorted.

"Is everything ok?" Nova asked upon entry to medbay.

"N-n-no!" Sprx answered.

"Nova, can you hold him still while I scan him?" Gibson asked.

"Um….sure." Nova said, unsure.

Sprx breathes where shaking more than he was, which was an accomplishment seeing how he was shivering like a quake! Nova felt bad, wondering what could possibly be wrong with the red monkey. It wasn't cold at all, yet her he was looking like he was about to get pneumonia!

Then she touched him.

"AH!" she unintentionally screamed, yanking her hands away from the source of intense cold instinctively.

Gibson glanced at her, but Sprx stared intently in confusion.

"You're…..like ice." Nova quietly said, shameful of her reaction to her sick teammate.

"Well I think I got a good enough scan." Gibson said thoughtfully, stroking his face. "Great Scott!"

"W-w-w-what'sss wrong with-th m-m-m-me?" Sprx asked in a very strained tone, obviously trying to not stutter and failing.

Gibson stilled himself, gathering himself. He stared at the screen in disbelieve for a moment.

"There's some sort of a….a…." Gibson grasped for words "mystic _substance_ in your core."

"M-m-m-m-m-m-meaning?" Sprx said, giving up on stopping his stuttering.

"It's the source of the cold your feeling." Gibson paused "It's freezing you inside out."

"W-w-w-what!?" Sprx exclaimed.

"I presume this was put in your core during one of our fights this week, any idea when?" Gibson theorized.

Nova gasped.

"When he jumped in front of that attack for me!" Nova realized, with a tinge of guilt.

"He what!?" Gibson yelled without thinking.

Of course he did! It was such a Sprx thing to do! And of course he didn't say monkeydoodle about it! Why would he? That'd be making things easier on Gibson!

"He took a hit from one of those bigger ice demons for me today." Nova answered, feeling like monkeydoodle herself.

If only she had watched her rear! Sprx wouldn't have had to take the hit, and he'd be fine right now!

"D-d-d-d-don't b-b-b-b-bl-a-a-ame…" Sprx failed to say.

He could tell that Nova was feeling responsible, but he couldn't speak to comfort her!

Sprx reached for her hand, but she pulled back.

"Sorry. " She said, looking down.

He forgot that he was literally freezing right now. He was probably the last person on Shuggazoom she wanted to hold hands with.

* * *

Otto slammed the cover back on Sprx's back, pushing him forward slightly.

"I set your heat cells at 200%, any more and they'll start burning you." Otto chirped.

"T-t-thanks." Sprx quietly stuttered, feeling a bit warmer.

It was waning fast though.

"Gibson, any leads on a cure yet?" Chiro asked, in an authoritive tone.

Gibson pause as if he was debating whether or not he wanted to say something. He decided against it and settled on shaking his head uncertainly.

"Well we have to do something!" Nova said as she tried her best to bare Sprx's freezing temperature so she could help warm him.

Everyone receded deep into their own thoughts for a good while.

Sprx suddenly lunched forward in distress. He was clutching his core in pain and shivering even more. If Nova and Otto hadn't caught him, he would have fallen to the floor.

They gently set him on the table and began to warm their hands up out of an instinct reaction to handling his cold body.

Sprx felt more aggressive shivers rip through his body. They were much like the one he had felt when he was first hit, only these weren't stopping. He writhed in agony over the pain and cold. His breathe was all over the place, he barely could keep enough air down. Sprx thought he was dying for a minute.

"He's getting worse." Antauri announced grimly, stating the obvious.

"Gibson, are you sure we don't have _any_ options!?" Chiro desperately pleaded.

Gibson switched his gaze frantically between Chiro and Sprx. The cracks in his dam were showing and worsening until finally the whole thing snapped, releasing what he had been holding back.

"There is one." Gibson said in an almost shameful tone.

"Well? What is it!?" Otto eagerly asked.

Gibson looked to the ground with moral struggle clear on his face, as if the tiles had the answer for him. He had to make a choice, and both his options were just awful. He could let Sprx freeze to death or…

"The fire of hate." Gibson said.

The only sound was Sprx's spastic breathing. Everyone wondered if he had been coherent enough to hear Gibson's suggestion.

The silence was broken by unphased as always, Antauri. The robotic monk was always more focused on the next course of action rather than the weight of what he had just been told.

"How so?"

Gibson swallowed the thick lump of regret and began to explain.

"Even though the fire is dormant, a piece of it will always remain in Sprx. By its self it does nothing, but with a strong enough influence close enough to the fire's power, it can be 'relight' per say." Gibson looked at nothing by the floor as he explain. "I ran the calculations. A mystical fire that strong in his core would eliminate the substance that's freezing him."

"But Sprx…." Nova trailed off, looking at the poor monkey whose fate they were deciding.

"Would become evil again." Gibson nodded, confirming their fears.

Silence pressed down hard on them. It wasn't long before it was so suffocating it was practically stealing air from their lungs. Everyone was too shocked and scared to speak. The fragile force of silence can have great power when no one dares to break it.

The quiet sound of Sprx's breathing gradually changed. It stole the teams attention until they could make out was Sprx was doing.

He was trying to talk.

Curled up into a ball, spasming involuntarily, he forced his word out.

"N-n-n-n…..n-n-n-no-o-o." He forced out.

This was worse than freezing. He wanted Gibson to take it back and say there was no saving him. He'd rather die than let himself be controlled by that much hate again.

There was no response, so he said it again.

"N-n-n-no-o-o-o."

Still no one spoke.

"N-N-NO!" He screamed.

After the words came out he realized the amount of strength he had used. Gibson caught his head as his fell down.

Sprx continued to shiver and shake slightly. Lacking the strength to open his eyes, Sprx hoped his protest would be enough to deter his family.

He was so cold though.

So cold.

To the team's horror, they watched frost climb up Sprx's neck. His shaking had slowed down to almost nonexistence due to his exhaustion. His lips were blue and quivering. He had no grip and his eyes wouldn't open.

They were out of time. It was now or never. Let Sprx freeze, or hand him over to Skeleton King.

* * *

**OH!?**

**What's this?**

**To be continued? **

**WHAT!?**

**I'm so evil. **

**-grungekitty**


End file.
